Official shocked by lab's gear

By FRANCESCA MOLD

The Gisborne laboratory embroiled in a cervical cancer inquiry had cracked and broken benchtops, out-of-date equipment and textbooks and was in a generally rundown state, according to an accreditation officer who visited it in 1993.

Graham Walker, a former programme manager at International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), told the inquiry yesterday that the laboratory left such an impression on him after his visit that he was unlikely to forget it.

He said that in technical categories he had not visited another medical laboratory since that had such deficiencies.

Mr Walker also stunned the inquiry with revelations of growing numbers of New Zealand laboratories becoming increasingly cash-strapped and with a desperate shortage of experienced staff.

"In my view, the ramifications of this decreased funding has far-reaching consequences, which are only now beginning to show, and will, I believe, have a significant impact on standards and therefore the validity of tests."

He said laboratories did not have budgets that allowed them to replace senior laboratory staff.

Mr Walker said three laboratories that read smear slides for the national programme had had their accreditation for this service suspended because qualified staff had left.

He said New Zealand was fast approaching the situation where a qualified smear screener could be replaced only with someone who had no experience in that field.

About half of all laboratories doing smear reading did not have their full complement of staff, he said.

Mr Walker said standards being proposed by the national programme's managers were unlikely to be achieved because of under-resourcing.

Mr Walker told the inquiry he visited the Gisborne laboratory, owned by Dr Michael Bottrill, in October 1993 to discuss the accreditation process and again in 1994 after an application for registration with IANZ (then known as Telarc) was received.

"It was my clear impression from my visit to Gisborne Laboratories that accreditation was not being actively pursued by the laboratory and that the process was being pursued begrudgingly for other reasons."

He said laboratory manager Graham Reeve and Dr Bottrill had told him the laboratory needed to demonstrate, for contractual purposes, that it was working towards accreditation.

In a report written in November 1994, Mr Walker found that deficiencies at the Gisborne laboratory included a lack of participation in external proficiency testing with the Royal College of Pathologists and a lack of records showing feedback had been sought on the reading of slides.

Mr Walker had also noted an apparent lack of on-going training and a generally rundown condition of the laboratory.

Dr Bottrill's lawyer, Chris Hodson, QC, disputed parts of Mr Walker's testimony, saying his client had access to journals at the Gisborne Hospital library and had attended conferences.

He also said a state-of-the-art haematology analyser was bought in 1994 - countering Mr Walker's evidence that Dr Bottrill's equipment was in poor condition.

Mr Hodson also said Dr Bottrill's microscope was in good order.